I would only sign eight of the 29 Bengals UFA

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(12-29-2020, 05:53 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Not a chance in hell I would spend $15.2m on 1 year of Carl Lawson. (That was the franchise tag number for a DE in 2020.)

That's about 8.7% of your cap space on a DE with more games missed (13) than sacks (11.5) over the last 3 years.

Fair enough. But he's the only Bengal to get consistent pressure on the QB and those guys aren't cheap. Most franchise tags are canceled out by a long term deal. If he signs the tag and doesn't negotiate for a long term deal, that probably means that he doesn't want to be here, but now he's back to having to perform for his next contract again.

Expecting DL draft picks to fill that roll is actually pretty unrealistic. The top three rookie DL have combined for only 13.5 sacks.

#2 overall Chase Young leads all rookies with 6.5 sacks

5th round Alton Robinson is 2nd with 4 sacks - selected by Seattle directly after Khalid Kareem.

4th round DJ Wonnum has 3 sacks with Minnesota.

The next two rookies with 3 sacks are LB Patrick Queen with Baltimore and Tamp Bay safety Antoine Winfield Jr.

Chase Young has one more sack than Carl Lawson but Lawson has 37 QB pressures(#6 in the NFL), that's 20 more than Young's 17(tied for 65th). Lawson leads the NFL with QBs knocked to the ground after the throw with 21, Hubbard has 5, Chase Young has 2. It's highly unlikely to get a better DE prospect than Chase Young in the 2021 draft. If the Bengals don't sign Lawson, someone else will for a whole lot of money.




Completely irrelevant fact . . . Mr Irrelevant 2020 is #255 overall, NY Giants LB Tae Crowder. He has 27 tackles and a sack this season. Good for him. #65 overall Logan Wilson has 23 tackles and a sack but also has 2 INTs. I like what I've seen from Wilson so that's great value for the Giants for a late 7th round pick.